State Medicaid hotline can't keep up with consumer calls

Misses benchmarks despite additional resources

2:43 AM,
Jan. 19, 2014

Written by

Russ Zimmer
CentralOhio.com

Despite getting millions of additional dollars for staffing, the state's Medicaid hotline in December still had thousands of callers seeking help hang up after being placed on hold.

Consumer calls to the Ohio Medicaid Consumer Hotline doubled in December once people who were eligible under Medicaid expansion were able to apply, according to a monthly report from the state. However, the privately run call center - which is getting $9.2 million from the state and federal governments to deal with the glut of new callers without a drop-off in quality - failed to achieve its performance goals, ...